The Internet Commerce Association (ICA) is a non for profit organization which represents and defends the rights of domainers and the domain industry participants at large. During last week's TRAFFIC East Orlando conference, Michael Collins and Phil Corwin were given the opportunity to give us updates about their efforts to combat the well publicized Snowe Bill and to express their need for more support moving forward. In addition to the video session we are sharing with you, you will find an exclusive write up for DomainNews by Michael Collins below...

"Many domain investors and developers seem content that the Snowe bill isn’t making much headway in the Senate. The threat seems to have subsided to them. Internet Commerce Association’s lobbyist in Washington, Philip Corwin, moved quickly to stop this threat before it built any momentum. He describes his work in more detail in the video of his talk at TRAFFIC in Orlando. My favorite part is when Phil asks “What would have happened if ICA had not been there for you when this bill was introduced?” Unfortunately, this bill is like an iceberg, the part you see is only a small part of this monster. This bill is a signpost that we can read to see what the IP interests behind CADNA want to do to our industry. They want to destroy it and for some of the companies behind CADNA, then want to start monetizing the traffic that is now domain traffic.

CADNA isn’t going away. Joshua Bourne, CADNA President, was invited to speak at TRAFFIC in Orlando, but was unable to because he was speaking at an International Trademark Association meeting in Berlin. He spoke there about “Why the trademark community should worry or Why the trademark community is far from being worried enough” to the attorneys working for trademark interests around the globe. CADNA is using the Snowe bill to recruit members and create support for expanding trademark protection in Washington at the expense of individuals and small businesses that have invested time and money in domain names.

What would have happened if ICA had not been there for you when the Snowe bill was introduced? Within two days of this bill being introduced, Corwin was on the phone with staff members working on internet fraud issues for Financial Service Roundtable. He spoke to Electronic Frontier Foundation, American Bankers Association and other internet trade associations that are actively working to stop phishing. He got to these influential groups because he has a long-standing working relationship with their leaders and staff. He quickly spread our message that this bill is not an effective anti-phishing remedy. They agreed that this bill would not be effective at reducing phishing. None of the groups that Corwin met with endorsed the Snowe bill. Things could have been very different for us if these groups had come out in support of the bill. We could have been facing a difficult battle opposing an “Anti-phishing” bill supported by some very credible groups in Washington.

Philip Corwin has more to say in the video from TRAFFIC Orlando and I hope that you will listen to him speak about what ICA has been doing in Washington. Please remember to join ICA (http://www.internetcommerce.org/membership_application) and support the work that we do to protect your domain name assets in Washington and at ICANN. Thank you to all who are supporting Internet Commerce Association."

Source: Written by Michael Collins for DomainNews.com - Video by Roland G Buck, Chief Editor at DomainNews.com - May 29th, 2008